Pakistan Blogs

This is an attempt to make a comprehensive listing of Pakistani Blogs. I’ve set up a “directory of Pakistani weblogs”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/pakblogs/index.html. It’s currently under construction and suggestions are welcome. Please send in blogs to add by “using the contact form”:http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/contact/add_weblog.html..

Pakistani blogs are different from “blogs by Pakistani’s residing in the UK/US”. We need more 100% Pakistani blogs on the Net. They present the humane side of Pakistan, which hardly anyone abroad knows about. The only knowledge a large majority of American’s have of Pakistan is through their media, which, if you’ve seen Fox News, doesn’t require further comment. Even CNN is not much better, and between these two they have the market covered. The conservative newspapers not only have a very dim view of Pakistan, they often have articles along the lines of “Should we attack Pakistan?”. A large number of bloggers also view Pakistan as a “terrorist state”:http://oliverkamm.typepad.com/blog/2003/08/pakistans_respo.html. The only news they hear is that of “nukes”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_687000/687021.stm, “military coups”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/472968.stm, “killings”:http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8062_Honor_Killing_Watch and a whole other assortment of not very good things.

Well, the last para is not really that relevant to making a list of Pakistani’s bloggers, but it’s one of the reasons I think that more people should be blogging. It’s news/views at a personal level which no other media can convey, and portrays the human side of a country.

The following applies just as much here in Pakistan as in the Arab world:


bq.. And I was dissapointed to find *very few weblogs* by Arab people dealing with political and social issues in the Arab and Islamic world. I have always been concerned about our voice not reaching the rest of the world. *Sadly a very large majority in the west still see us as people living in tents, dressed with turbans and robes, riding camels and cursing the ‘infidel’ west*. This is a myth, and the reason Arab people aren’t building bridges with the west is because they are so hopeless about their future under their oppressing regimes and their Islamic mullahs who both wish to keep it that way, so they can go on plundering our money and laughing at our chins while warning us of the grave fate that Allah has prepared for us if we don’t do it their way. I’m sick of all of that.

Despite what you see in the Arab world from people bashing the American ‘occupation’ of Iraq, the truth is that they all desire the same in their hearts and minds, because deep inside they all know that *they have all been occupied for years by their own regimes*. And they are yearning for their freedom. Most of what you see is really Arab regimes speaking, not the people. They know their time has come and that their days are numbered. THEY are the real terrorists.

>> “Buzzmachine: A email from Iraq”:http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_10.html#004884

p. *Update:* This list has now been removed. See http://bloggers.pk for a more complete list.

27 thoughts on “Pakistan Blogs”

  1. My votes go to

    http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/veiled4allah.php highly recommended to everyone

    http://pakjour.blogspot.com a writer in UAE, very enlightening and funny sometimes

    http://sanaslifesanasblog.blogspot.com/ better than most of pakistani gals I know

    http://almominah.batcave.net/index.html Again an enlightening Muslimah’s blog

    http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=barsaat_ke_mausam Of course her brain is more clear and thoughtful than mine 🙁

    http://ovais.fx.to/ he’s quite considerate, towards others’ criticism at least 🙂

    and yes, almost any or every link at http://ramblingmonologues.blogspot.com/

    then randomly, I would pick from http://www.xanga.com/blogrings/blogring.asp?id=4676 Muslim Bloggers

    ummm there is one more I came across yesterday and its one of the cutest and loveliest blog. a blogger of 16-17 yrs old and I am already impressed by her passion about Islam and the wisdom through which she personify her thought process.

    –, why shouldn’t there be a formal or at least more formalized list of Paki bloggers which other communities can use.and well the list would be gigantic now, I tell you, so we need to categorize them probably. damnnn I need to read PHP now, coz couldn’t find an ass with that passion and I don’t know it either… what do you say? and good to see ya back.

    Regards.

    Ejaz

    p.s Zackaria zackvision.com is the best blog probably in males.

  2. Thanks for the links I’m going to have to take out time and go see them all now!

    A formal list is a good idea, you could publish it in erudition.

  3. Well thanks — for backing the idea… but you see, ahemm ummmm alright. would have to create a form and then would be able to collect data through that. coz asking others to email you is pure rude these days. However, I was thinking if some bannerless blog hosting could be sponsored for these bloggers? any chance? I mean some of the blogs are just too classy when it comes to layout and serving the content, some of them are too brilliant in writing but firstly these banners distract and break the identity which bloggers want to keep, build and hold. and secondly some of the templates are too weird. commenters are not working or work on second go, the accessibility and minor usability issues are there too… by far, MT rules but that’s not the demand of everyone, I guess. and installing MT is also a problem for most, including me. Yeah man, it really sucked last time i tried. :(((

    however, something’s got to be done in this regard… may be we could invite zack here for discussion? or you could start a new category of Pak bloggers? where we could see what can be done and not done in this regard… coz you see there is all manual work in erudition, so it wont work there until I change my host.

    however, the blog that I forgot was: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=laydie_mistikal some problems might have to be faced getting through frames, but she has some witty yet serene style of writing.

    Shall add some more.

    Ejaz

  6. oopss yeah I forgot Tora’s blog. even though I had made my entry there too 😉 infact there are hundreds of them that its not surprising how easily one can miss one. Thanks Tora for dropping by and saying hello. –‘s blog is really nice for many reasons. uncluttered and clean template with many categories you can choose from and this man surely knows how to make content sticky 😛 know what –, here is something I fetched for you, donno whether yo know it already or not. http://www.bloggingnetwork.com/Blogs/Info/Idea.aspx A pakistani born Humayun’s running this unique blogging thingie. and then http://portal.eatonweb.com/country/Pakistan lists some of the bloggers most of whom are in Pakistan (or at least it sounds so) now we need to do two things: categorize them or classify them at least in some form so ppl could easily get likeminds and so on. And secondly rate them. now we could either rate them before hand and put only selected one but this can again be biased, even if its’ lil bit. And other option could be that we allow others to rate the blogs within a directory and only selected one get higher exposure. ummmm alright, lets think a lil bit more hehe after all what all it takes is a little cognitive skills we all have grown up to consume and conserve.

    Ejaz

  7. I’m going to start categorizing them, but I’m definitely not going to rate them! I’ll make two lists, one containing all the Pakistani blogs, and one containing the paki blogs I read. I could make a list like http://ko.offroadpakistan.com/links/ and have a submit form somewhere so people can send in their own sites. This way people can leave comments on each link also, and each link/blog can have multiple categories. Now, what sort of categories should there be anyways?

  9. Good idea about Pakistani blog directory. Regarding categories, I guess something like personal, religion, literary, political, expat, etc. might work.

    Ejaz: A number of sites in your list are Muslim but not Pakistani. e.g., muhajabah.com.

    A couple of other Paki blogs are:

    http://hashez.compucraze.com

    http://junooni.diaryland.com

    http://www.uzer.org

    http://latif.blogspot.com Zachary latif living in UK.

    http://www.blogwise.com/bycountry.php?country=161 has a small list of Pakistani bloggers.

    http://www.geocities.com/proudpakistanis/ lists a few as well.

  10. Thanks zack for correction and also for generating few categories on the fly 🙂 The categories might be bit exhaustive, but they sure would drive the relevant traffic most probably. here is my take:

    Arts n Design

    Business & Commerce

    Computing (graphic design, tech stuff, networking, hardware and those geeky programmers)

    Fashion, beauty, femme etc..

    Family, friends related

    literary (or could be personal as Zack put it)

    religious

    politics

    Current Affairs (news)

    Movies, Music, Culture

    Other professions related blog (medicine, engineering, or even economists)

    Students’ blog

    Teens blog

    Women specific blogs

    the labeling would have to be decided later on, first we have to think what to keep and what not to.

    some different approach could also include those with:

    just design or aesthetically chosen blogs

    unbiased, serious and thoughtful blogs i.e. zack’s blog

    user choice or fav. one (sometimes they make it jerry mcGuire their hot personality even, so you got to take care of their hearts as well)

    most regular blogger can also be cross linked separately

    or may be we wont like to leave out the ones who post replies or comments more regularly… ahh finally, I found one for myself too hehe

    well the list can be stretched a bit more but for now, let it start something out.

    Ejaz

  11. One of my favorate link repositories has been http://glassdog.net/ (of the http://glassdog.com/ fame – where I learnt HTML). Glassdog.net was pulled off some years back, but it seems have been back online recently and now down again. Glassdog.net is a “portal to independent, non-commercial, collaborative content sites.” Follow the links at http://www.glassdog.net/submit.html to see their FAQ and categorization.

    A Pakistani weblog link repository could be built along the same lines, with added features such as ranking, commenting, blog descriptions, and editorial ranking. Movable Type should be easily able to handle the backend – unless if one wants to do PHP/MySQL et al.

    A List Apart has an good article (old though) on portals/webrings at http://www.alistapart.com/stories/whose/whose4.html

  12. Zack’s right…there’s some discrepancies within the “Pakistani” blogs up there; for example, Sana is actually Indian. And not necessarily every link on my blog is Pakistani either. So tread carefully. =) But you’re almost correct, because I went back and scrolled through my links, and dang, I didn’t even realize soo many are Pakistani. I didn’t even do that on purpose. :-p

    Masha’Allah, good ideas going around though. I can’t come up with any off the top of my head at the moment, but I’ll definitely be back to add insha’Allah.

  14. Arun Reginald’s JavaByte Blog is truly amazing and gives a refreshing view of the Java Platform. He had been continuously musing about the Java Platform from a Pakistani perspective. Although the blog focuses on the Java Language, it features daily troubles at his workplace he named Griddex Solutions and it is interesting to know that he is almost always that ordinary self lost in the weird world of programming. I love the blog, and you should too if you are a computer developer and a professional desperately looking for information regarding the Java Platform.

  16. I have been thinking of starting my own blog (in the hopes of hearing from some of you. It’s lonely to be a person with a passion for Pakistan and live on the West Coast of the US. So often I would like to hear opinions from people who live in Pakistan who are moderates.

    I have been studying for about four years now but it’s still hard to get it right when the culture is so different and the media likes to blur and twist the issues.

  18. Speaking of Paki Blogs……i came across a “GAY PAKI BLOG”…..yeah GAY as in western Gay…….as in ADAM and STEVE…….not ADAM and EVE.

    Well apart from all the ewwwz, yuckz and tauba taubaz around it……..the blog is pretty interesting. This Happy GO Lucky dude from karachi in his early 20z is telling the world how it feels like to be Gay in Pakiland and what kinda challenges he faces with his parents..etc.

    His portrayal of checking-out one of his friends was very funny…where he is not sure if his long time mate is indeed a prospective “mate”.

  19. We have started out Pakistans first Free Blog Hosting service designed around the artistic community , which also caters general public. Please do check it out.

  20. Lets argue how much a Pakistan General can make in his service life time.

    I would say sky is the limit! Had it not been the case, then tell me how mathematically it would have been possible for Humayoun Akthar Khan (son of Ex Army General Abdul Akhthar Rehman) to put up a Sugar mill, Pakistan Pepsico and couple of other businesses. It has an estimated 600 (hundred) million dollars value.

    He himself is Minister, Pakistan’s Commerce Ministry.

    Being a chief of Commerce Ministry and sugar mill owner is very much of conflict of interest. Uhmm….now I know why Pakistan TCP (Trading Corporation of Pakistan) just promised and promised sugar import to ease the prices, but really never did.

    Regards,

  21. I don’t know much about pakistan, but there is another good pakistani blog that I have come across. PakBlog.org . Seems useful and has some insightful commentary.

  22. I think u r being very narrow minded and biased against Pakistanis livin in UK/US.

    “Pakistani blogs are different from “blogs by Pakistani’s residing in the UK/US”. We need more 100% Pakistani blogs on the Net. They present the humane side of Pakistan, which hardly anyone abroad knows about.”

    Pakistanis such as myself who reside on the west side of the world represent pakistan better than YOU ppl who actually live in PAK…How many times do we have to answer to the animal behaviour of our fellow pakistanis living in pakistan whenever sumthing goes wrong?..

    It will make no diff to having a 100% pakistani blog site to clear up the mess pakistanis back home have created for themselves.

  23. Imran, you read it wrong. There are already tons of Pakistani weblogs being written outside the country, I was trying to make a list of those actually in the country.

  27. asalam alaikumm….

    this is what i imagine a bold effort to lift ourselves out of our self pity and poverty and achive a meaningful life…

    this orginization aims at utilizing people’s talents in a cost effective manner to better society without getting into politics or sects or religions or whatever.

    this orginization is to better pakistanis whatever they are young or old , shia or sunni, christian or muslim.

    primary goals:

    a lot of pakistanis are educated, most however can’t spell there name….we want to educate as many children as possible through our teach me something project.

    next is a project to get beggers off the street yes its hard but its solution is simple one word: zakat , this is the answere , so we must educate people about zakat, it being one of the five pillars of islam, and also incourage sadaqat.

    these two project are one persons dreams imagin what we as a people of pakistan could do if we put our heads together…

    please think about it……

    lang_123_456@yahoo.com to volenteer

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